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What is the Hero of Madigan?
Commentaries on the King by Queen Kaeteli, Queen-Consort of the Pendorian Empire. Chapter 2 This is a PoV story from Lady Kaeteli the Lady I married in one of my playthroughs/"alternate probabilities." I've been thinking: what would an NPC think of my character? This interests me as my characters tend to gravitate towards powerplaying. Normally I won't give a damn but that concept of "alternate probabilities" and my playthroughs being "actual existing parallel dimensions" really gave me this sense of existential horror and made me turn in my bed at night. So I laughed it off and wrote this. "My father brought me to another one of the Koningur's tedious feasts." "It was of the typical fashion: eating, drinking, lords meeting and us daughters of the nobility presented and dressed up like those villages' prized heifers." "There is little that separates us noblewomen from chattel. Our traders extol our virtues and we are sold to new masters though, in the place of coin, payment is made with alliances, treaties and even the children we would bear in our blue blood. Essentially slavery all in the name of this 'necessity' they call 'marriage'." "Although this should enrage anyone, the other ladies of this kingdom have passively resigned to such. Some have even embraced their lot with concepts like "romance" and "fate" while some truly willful ones have seen it as a worthy challenge and dream of being some mighty earl's mighty wife." "I would never have even thought of entrusting myself to such a delusion (much to the chagrin of my mother) but the dream, of the handsome, kindly man in Noldor armor astride weapons with a glint of ruby, fails to leave my thoughts." "On this concept of 'marriage' there is one other who shared my consternation. Lady Afrun and I grew up together at Highcliffe when my father took her and her brother as charges. I remember the days when father would let us run free in the meadow to hunt rabbits and spot falcons after which we so childishly swore to each other that we'll never shackle ourselves to the wiles of men. When we see each other during the Koningur's feasts we huddle and laugh at these poor ladies about to be entrapped to a husband." "Afrun was the first to break that promise when Lord Olaf Oakenshield announced their engagement on the last feast on November. Since then, in my pettiness, we have not communicated until this feast when she looked at me, her future husband's arm in hers, with a knowing smile and whispered: 'Damia will bless this year's harvest.'" "I was left in surprise over the mention of the name of a distant goddess worshipped only by the ponces of the Empire from the mouth of a maiden of Fierdsvain. Of the goddess who proclaimed my future with the man in my dream." "My father, being the good-natured person he is, sensed my distress and called on me to join him to witness the tourneys that I so loved." "I used to dream I was fighting in the arena and besting the strongest it has to offer, that I was merely a poor theign's daughter newly joined to the Valkyries representing my order and defeating the champions of the Koningur's rivals." "We were taking our places when my father recognized him, the man who's now renowned for saving entire counties' worth of villages, fighting alongsides noldor and freeing cadres of lords from dungeons. The man in my dream who, a few months ago, left upon us such a strange impression during his visit to our castle." "He was standing there with that still handsome countenance bearing a passive expression, a monk's shaved pate and an eccentric mustache-beard combo." "The Koningur calls for the beginning of the melee." "This strange man does the unexpected. He screams at his team to converge on him and form a line." Chronicler's Note: This was unprecedented at the time as the teams were developed simply to ease the tourney's bracketing. The forefathers of the tourney must not have expected the teams to change from the every-man-for-himself system they used to be. It is also to be noted that around this time, the gladiators of Javiksholm were beginning to be reputed to be as disciplined as the Legionnaires of Janos themselves, evolving into the famous teams we have today in this 63rd year of reign of our beloved King of Pendor "He then proceeded behind his team and waited for the other teams to crash into it willy-nilly." "On first axe-on-shield blow, he took a roundabout path and positioned himself with the melee's back to him." "He then begun swinging his axe and with every few hits of wooden axe, a warrior is knocked out." "Although there were no statute of the tourney that prohibits this it was at this point that the audience concluded (with a resounding 'boo' nonetheless) that 'my future', the then called 'Cavalier of Pendor' is both a coward and a simpleton." "Cringing at this display, I look to my father and he simply looks back to me, amused, and says: 'You have not yet seen how my future son-in-law truly fights.'" "Irritated at my father's nonchalant jests about the prospect of me being married to this dunce I asked the Koningur to permit for strictly one-on-one fights which he so happily approved after bearing witness to this moronic spectacle." "He is brought out and facing against him is the renowned Earl Ari Forkbeard who once held High Pass Fortress against the D'shar for four months" "The melee is sounded and the fighters clash." "We are left in a state of shock and the Earl is lying on the ground with an axe-shaped bump on his temple." "The strange man fought like a demon emplyoying precise blocks and a flurry of feints and strikes. The display reminded me of the peddler Finneas de Digit, being invited to one of our dinners, telling of an Elixir enhancing one's abilities but the elixir is so hard to acquire that the one who does so might as well have these enhancements already." "The strange man acts like he drank 63." "The following fights were merely of terrified toddlers trying to allay the demon and failing. One fight lasted a half minute that the man simply broke through his foe's shield and struck him asleep with the momentum." "As predicted, the man comes home with the prize money and the victory that, to my utter disbelief, was dedicated to me. Everyone, even the Koningur, looked at me askance as if I was Erida Occisor come to call her strongest champion to sow terror on Pendor. Everyone except, of course, Lady Afrun and her knowing smile." "The tourney champion is then invited into the feast where he swears fealty to the Koningur and asks permission to pursue me which my father can only happily agree to." "It was one of the happiest days of my life. Looking back to it, I am glad. I am glad that despite being prevented by my station and sex to fight battles of sword and shield, I found my King's love and trust that leaves me to fight battles in ruling a kingdom in his name and raising the children and dynasty that bears it instead." "It was however the first steps though, as the simplest peasant can tell you that my husband did not unite the continent with the swing of his sword but with the sleaziest of his tricks..." Dedicated especially to Ralyks for his work on the wikia, to "Vance" and to the Prophesy of Pendor modding team. Category:User Content